Page 47 of The Dragon 1
Then his laughter died.
He placed his chopsticks down on the table with a delicateclink. And turned that glacier stare back onto me. “But dragons aremyths.”
I leaned back in my chair.
“Imaginary. Nonexistent in reality. Notruethreat,” Kazimir sneered. “Not like lions.”
To my left, Hiro stiffened and his jaw ticked once.
To my right, Reo exhaled like he was preparing for war.
I crossed my arms over my chest, letting Kazimir have his little theater moment but my mind was already assessing—how fast I could reach Kazimir, how clean the kill would be, whether Sasha would shoot before I shattered the Lion’s throat.
More importantly, I calculated the aftermath—how long until the Bratva came for my head and flattened the city.
And only after all of that, did I decide to speak. “Kazimir, did you come to Tokyo to educatemeon various creatures? If you did, you wasted a flight.”
“Do you sleep comfortably in bed at night?”
“I do.”
“Careful,” Kazimir held up one finger. “Comfort breeds weakness and weakness invites predators.”
“Then let’s not confuse comfort with control, Kazimir.” My smile widened. “I sleep well because my enemies die screaming. Because the air outside these walls carries my name like gospel. That isn’t comfort, that’s dominance.”
“Perhaps, you’re correct. . .Dragon.” Kazimir reached into his coat with slow precision, pulled out a thick cigar, and rolled it between his fingers like a loaded weapon.
“I have many ears and eyes in Tokyo,” he said, not looking at me yet. “They hear things. They see things. They run back to me like good little dogs and give a report.”
He placed the cigar between his lips.
Yuri tilted forward without being asked, struck a matte black lighter, and held the flame steady.
Kazimir leaned into the fire, his eyes finally locking with mine over the flickering flame. And then he did a single drag of the cigar until the tip glowed. He leaned back and smoke curled around his face like a serpent. “Lately. . .the news from my good little dogs has been smelling like rot. It is the stench of decay. Putrid.”
My brow furrowed slightly.
Hiro caught it.
I would need my brother to find the Lion’s spies in Tokyo, those fucking rats slipping through the cracks of my empire. And when Hiro did? I would cut out those rats’ eyes and ears.
“For example,” Kazimir blew out cigar smoke. “I’ve been told that the Dragon does not like my new shipment prices.Especially the security fee.”
He is truly insane.
Reo had been right on his guesses. The Lion hadn’t flown to Tokyo just to eat sushi off a naked woman. He came here because he’d heard whispers about that measly twenty percent. A small fraction of drug shipments we’d quietly rerouted through the French.
Just twenty fucking percent.
A little test.
A safety net.
But also, apparently, a huge slap to the Lion’s pride.
For Kazimir Solonik, twenty percent might as well have been treason because he’d crossed the damned ocean to sit in my city and bitch about it.
Now what?
